Woodside/Pescadero/San
Gregorio/Tunitas Creek Coast Loop, May 9, 2002
A nice, just over 50 mile ride to the
coast, with just a few little hills in the way (see profile at
bottom of page to see how hilly)
Kevin Keenan making his way to the
top of Old La Honda Road. I finally made decent time at 21:43
(decent for me these days anyway!).
Mandatory photo of the Red Barn on
Highway 84, just below where Old La Honda connects.
The infamous Flamingo House!
There must be many, many hundreds of them all over the hillside.
(Sadly, new owners removed nearly all of them in 2007)
Great place for fresh bread in
Pescadero, if you arrive earlier than 10am. If not...
...this bakery is
the ticket! Fresh pastries, breads, cheeses, etc.
But opens at 10am.
Riding past the cemetery on Stage
Road, just as you leave Pescadero. As you can see, this turned
out to be a pretty nice day! It had threatened to be a bit
cold & breezy, but the coast was around 60-62 degrees, quite
tolerable. Had to take our jackets on & off a couple times,
but life could be worse. And very, very few cars. The
joys of riding on a weekday (Thursday in this case)!
This is all part of the
set up to the photo below, just trying to get you to know where this
is on Stage Road, not too far from Pescadero as you head north.
Seems like people miss the strange sculpture in the next photo, even though
they've ridden past it many times!
And there, just to the
left of the middle of the photo, is the notorious machine-gunning
skeleton. I'm sure there's a great story behind it, but don't
know it yet, and don't know if I want to ask the occupants.
The San Gregorio General Store, where
we met up with Deb, a customer who's into long distance riding, and
a friend of hers.
Tunitas Creek starts out
with such tranquility!
But soon the road changes its tune and you begin to make the climb
out of Shangri La.
On the left you see Kevin heading up
the final steep part of Tunitas Creek. This is a great climb
in the summer, because it's always shaded and the creek that runs
along the lower half is nearly always running.
My mapping program, De Lorme's Topo USA V3.0,
severely over-estimates the total climbing at 8,000+ feet. In
the tables at the bottom of the page, I've isolated all significant
elevation gains, and came up with about 5,400 feet. An
accurate figure for all climbing is probably around 6,000 feet or
so, making this a ride climbers will enjoy, but not putting it
beyond the capabilities of a fairly strong, average rider.
The route:
Starts at Olive Hill & Canada Road, same place as
the Tuesday/Thursday ride up King's Mountain. Head south on
Canada Road to the town of Woodside, across Woodside Road and south
on Mountain Home. Mountain Home runs into Sand Hill/Portola
Road, where you head right (west) a short distance to the base of
Old LaHonda.
Travel up Old LaHonda to Skyline and down the
other side, where it dead ends at Highway 84. Ride down 84
past the town of LaHonda and make the left turn at Pescadero Road.
Head up Pescadero Road over Haskins Grade (a major climb, even
though it's not all that high) and down towards the town of
Pescadero. Somewhere around mile 21 or so is the Flamingo
House, shown in one of the photos above. It's next to a
bridge that goes over the creek, and will be on your right. As
you near the town of Pescadero, take a right on North Street, which
ends at Stage Road. The bakery and town store will be just to
your left, and definitely worth a visit.
Head north on Stage Road from Pescadero, and make
sure to look for the house with the skeletal machine-gun-holding
man! It's at the end of a long straight stretch lined by trees
on each side, as shown in one of the photos above. Stage Road
between Pescadero and San Gregorio has two good climbs, although
neither is very steep and can be "challenged" if you're feeling
good. The Country Store at San Gregorio is definitely worth a
look if you've never been there before, with a combination of bar,
store and hard goods all in one place. It takes you back in
time quite a few years. By the way, this is your last chance
for water, and you're going to need at least one full bottle for the
climb back up Tunitas Creek.
From San Gregorio you climb up the final section
of Stage Road to where it intersects with Highway 1. Somehow
you're never expecting a good climb at this part of the ride, since
you're so close to the coast (and getting closer!). But climb
you do, and it's a bit steeper than the other two climbs on Stage
between San Gregorio and Pescadero (or maybe it just seems that
way). You end up on Highway 1 484 feet above the Pacific
Ocean. On a clear day, it's quite a view, but you don't get
much of a look as you're heading downhill fast, across the bridge at
the bottom and a quick right onto Tunitas Creek.
Tunitas Creek deserves a website all to itself.
There is very little in the first few miles to tell you that it's
2002 and not 1932 (which, coincidentally, is about the time it was
last paved). It starts out pretty tame but that doesn't last.
The real climb starts right when you pick up the creek on the
right-hand side, and thank goodness for that! Even in the
summer there's usually enough water to make a friendly noise as you
climb & grind uphill, and the complete tree cover keeps the climb
far cooler than any of the other routes over the hill. But, it
does get steep, and if you're riding with others, it's one of
those hills that doesn't take kindly to riding at someone else's
pace. The steep part is about three miles long, but the fun
doesn't end there... not by a long shot. The upper stretch,
where it's gone from maybe an 8-10% grade down to 3-5%, seems to go
on forever, and even those who've ridden the road many times
before constantly underestimate its length, believing the end is
just around that corner... or maybe that one... or maybe it's just
up ahead.
You finally end up at the high point of the ride,
the intersection of Tunitas Creek, Skyline and King's Mtn.
From here it's a fast descent down King's Mtn into Woodside, where
after leveling out for half a mile you make a left turn onto
Manuella, and after another half mile make the left turn onto
Albion. Albion dead-ends at Olive Hill with a stop sign, where
you make a right and drop down the last little hill to Canada Road,
where you started out some 51 miles ago. This is one of those
rides that makes you so glad you live on the SF Peninsula and marvel
at how quickly you can get away from civilization!
Below we've charted out the significant milestones
in the ride, noting the tops of each major climb, as well as places
where you can find food & water. --Mike--
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